Separation of mercury by hydraulic concentration and screening



April 13, 1948. H. M. ROBERTSON 2,439,694

SEPARATION OF MERCURY BY HYDRAULIC CONCENTRATION AND SCREENING Filed Oct. 6, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 April 1948. H. M. ROBERTSON 39,694 SEPARATION OF MERCURY BY HYDRAULIC CONCENTRATION AND SCREENING Filed Oct. 6, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

63 dicu'ufw 177.. Rober -5 Patented Apr. 13, 1948 SEPARATION OF MERCURY BY HYDRAULIC CONCENTRATION AND SCREENING Harry M. Robertson, Los Angelcs, CaliL, asslgnor to Turco Products, Inc. corporation of Caliiorni Application October 6, 1944, Serial 557,401

1 Claim. 1

My invention has to do with methods and apparatus for separating ores or concentrates into their separate components and, although not limited to such use, finds one of its chief advantages in the separation of quicksilver particles from cinnabar ores.

It is an object of my invention to provide methods and apparatus for separating metal elements from concentrates, which methods and apparatus are more rapid and economical than those presently known in the art. and it also has for an object a more complete separation and removal of the metal elements from the ore or concentrate.

Additional features of advantage will appear from the ensuing description of a presently preferred embodiment of the invention wherein I describe one of the several manners in which the invention may be carried out, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a medial vertical section;

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Cinnabar ore is the basic source of quicksilver. Before separating the quicksilver from the ore, the ore is crushed and heated to a cherryred heat in a furnace, preferably of the rotary type wherein fuel, ore and air are in intimate contact, An exhaust fan draws off the gasified products from the charge, which gas is passed through precipitators. where it is deposited as a. mass containing metallic quicksilver in minute particles, oil, sand, loam, rock, and other elements deposited in the .precipitator by the exhaust. This mass is in the form of a wet, sticky slurry, which dries out to the consistency of dried mud, the quicksilver particles in the mass carrying an oily film.

According to conventional practice this mass of concentrate is then pumped into vats, from which it is loaded into pans which are then heated in a closed retort to a cherry red heat, the quicksilver being gasified and exhausted from the retorts into condensers where it is finally deposited as metallic quicksilver.

According to my invention, however, I take this concentrate, denoted in the drawings by the letter C, and place it first into a disintegrator 5 along with a suflicient number of pebbles P, the pebbles being such as are employed in standard pebble mill grinding practice. the disintegrator water and a suitable amount of a chemical soap or detergent containing a I also place in Los Angeles, Calif" a wetting agent, theoptimum proportion of detergent and water to concentrate being 50%. This mixture is ground in the disintegra'tor by revolving the latter, until the concentrate particles are suitably broken up. This operation also cleans the concentrate particles of any oil film. When the rotation of the disintegrator is stopped, the oil, which is then on the surface of the liquid, is drawn off and the remainder of the contents of the disintegrator, except the pebbles, is gradually poured into the separator 6 to be hereinafter described. The pebbles are retained in the disintegrator.

The disintegrator 5 above discussed comprises therewith, the drum having a filling neck 2| 9 capped by a removable cover 22 and a discharge neck 23 capped by a removable cover 2 1. A screen 25 is disposed in neck 23. To pour the separated oil from the disintegrator, the drum is slowly rotated until the oil may be poured ofl through the discharge neck without pouring out the remainder of the contents, the oil being caught in a suitable container not shown.

The separator 6 comprises a casing 30 within the top portion ofwhich is mounted a frustoconical pan 3| having a central opening 32 within which a smaller conical hopper 35 fits, the latter terminating at its bottom in a discharge neck 36.

Connected into a T 31. in a line 38 leading from a source of water under pressure, there is a m=anifold 40 and from the several discharge outlets in the manifold a plurality of water discharge pipes 4| lead into the hopper 35, terminating in such position as to discharge water tangentially along the inside perimeter of the hopper. From the T 31 a pipe 43 leads into the neck 36, having a spray head 44 mounted on its discharge end. The spray head discharges ontoa conical impact member 45 which is adjustably supported by means of a screw shaft 46 threaded through a cross member 41 and carrying a hand wheel 48 on its top end. A discharge conduit 49 leads from the pan 3| to a receptacle not shown. The hopper 35 is additionally supported by braces 50.

A pair of receptacles 55. 56 of rectangular cross section and having converging bottom walls are mounted in the lower part of the casing, formingv the bottom of a tank formed'by side walls, receptacle charge neck 36 in the path of material passing downwardly through said neck.

A tilted vibratory screen 60 is disposed between the discharge neck 36 and the receptacle 55, the

. screen being vibrated by means of'drivers 6| each screen.

Operation of the device is as follows: The con- I centrate is deposited'into the disin'tegrator as before described and is ground therein until it is sufilciently finely divided and the oil film freed from the particles and rises to the top of the liquid in the disintegrator, where it is poured off. Then the remaining contents of the disintegrator, except the pebbles, are slowly deposited in the hopper 35 (being poured from the opening 2|) while the water under pressure is supplied through the pipes 4| and spray 44. The swirling -water in the hopper overflows the top edge of the hopper, carrying with it the lighter finely divided particles, which then pass off through the conduit 49. The particles of quicksilver and the other heavier particles of the concentrate pass out through the neck 36 onto the vibrating screen 60. The spray sufiiciently inhibits the free passage downwardly of the particles to insure that only the heavierones are allowed to pass.

The screen is of a relatively small mesh, typically 100 mesh, so that it passes only the smaller particles of the quicksilver, which drop into the receptacle 55, while the remainder of the material passing down through neck 36 is vibrated from the screen into the waste receptacle 56. The tank is kept filled with water up to theover- 55 being directly beneath the disflow outlet ll. so that the screen vibrates under water. I I

While I have particularly described my method and apparatus as adapted for the separation of quicksilver from concentrates, it will be readily understood that it is adaptable to separate other metallic particles from concentrate, and while I have described only one'particular adaptation of the invention, it will be understood that within the scope of the appended claim the invention is susceptible of being, embodied in other and modi fied forms of apparatus.

I claim: I

The method of separating heavy metallic particles from a concentrate containing oil, rock and metal which comprises grinding the concentrate in the presence of a soap to cleanse and remove the oil from the concentrate particles, subjecting the cleaned particles to aswirling body or water in a container until'the lighter particles are washed over the edge of the container and then removing the metallic particles from the bottom of the container by screening them under water.

HARRY M. ROBERTSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of*this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 133,172 Paul Nov. 19, 1872 144,923 Randol Nov. 25, 1873 641,359 Barron Jan. 16, 1900 697,353 MeDermott Apr. 8, 1902 r 762,866 Allen June 21, 1904 762,867 Allen June 21, 1904 788,788 Wild May 2, 1905 1,142,822 Littleford June 15, 1915 1,421,984 Ondra July 4, 1922 1,606,249 Kuehn Nov. 9, 1926 1,890,206 Andrews Dec. 6, 1932 2,163,927 Wright June 2'7, 1939 2,241,605 Krebs May 13, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 24,939 Great Britain 1893 

